Category: Banking & Finance

Our Bureau

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has called for a two-day strike next month – March 15 and March 16 – to oppose the proposed privatisation of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and other reform measures announced in the Budget.

In a meeting held on Tuesday in Hyderabad, UFBUdecided that intensive struggle programmes and agitational actions have to be launched to fight back the government’s proposed moves such as privatisation of IDBI Bank, two PSBs and one general insurance company, disinvestment in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), aggressive disinvestment and sale of public sector undertakings, among others, said CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association,in a statement.

“The meeting observed that all these measures are retrograde and, hence, need to be protested and opposed,” he said.

UFBU is the umbrella organisation of nine unions – four officers and five employees – in the banking sector. Currently, the government-owned financial institutions include 12 PSBs, 4 public sector general insurance companies, a public sector general re-insurance company (GIC Re) and LIC.

“The government’s announcement to privatise our public sector banks is totally unfortunate and unwarranted. The need of the hour is to strengthen public sector banks,” said Venkatachalam.

In the run up to the two-day strike, UFBU plans to hold agitational programmes, including a day-long dharna (protest) in all State Capitals on February 19, and relay dharnas in all States/ districts/ towns from February 20 to March 10.

Paytm, a digital financial services platform, has expanded its rent payments feature enabling tenants to transfer their monthly rent to their landlords’ bank account through their credit cards.

The company has also announced a cashback of up to ₹1,000 on such transactions. Besides earning cashback on every transaction, users will also be able to accumulate credit card points.

Narendra Yadav, Vice President – Paytm said in a statement: “House rent is one the highest recurring expenses for tenants in our country. Within few months of the launch, our Rent Payment feature is already enabling millions of users to maintain liquidity in these uncertain times and pay the rent as per their credit card cycle. With the expansion of this service, Paytm will continue its market leadership in rent payments, and we are expecting to process rents worth ₹300 crore by March ’21”.

For paying to the landlord, the user simply needs to select “Rent Payment” from the “Recharge & Pay Bills” section on Paytm Home Screen. Users can transfer money directly from the credit card to the landlord’s bank account. Paytm also gives the flexibility to make rent payments through other payment modes such as UPI, Debit Card, Net Banking. To make it hassle-free, the user only has to enter the landlord’s bank account details and nothing more. The dashboard also helps to track all rent payments, reminds about payment due dates and sends instant payment confirmation to landlords, the statement added.

The company is committed to making all recurring payments such as utility bills, credit card bills, etc., hassle-free for users. Soon, payments through credit cards will be enabled for other recurring expenses such as tuition fees, house-help’s salary, etc., it added.

There was an increase of nearly 65 per cent in the receipt of complaints under the three Ombudsman Schemes of the Reserve Bank of India in 2019-20, and a disposal rate of over 92 per cent was achieved.

In 2019-20, a total of 3,30,543 complaints were received under the three schemes, registering a growth of 64.97 per cent, compared to 2,00,362 complaints in 2018-19, according to the Annual Report on the RBI Ombudsman Scheme.

Complaints under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme increased by 57.54 per cent year-on-year with a total of 3.08 lakh complaints with those relating to ATM and debit cards and mobile and electronic banking being the major grounds of complaints in 2019-20.

“Complaints related to ATM/ Debit Cards and Mobile/ Electronic banking overtook those pertaining to non-observance of Fair Practices Code (FPC) as the major grounds of complaints during the year,” said the report for the period July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Their share in the total complaints received in 2019-20 was 21.97 per cent and 13.38 per cent, respectively, while the share of complaints relating to non-observance of FPC stood at 11.73 per cent, it said. The figures against these grounds during the previous year were 18.65 per cent, 7.55 per cent and 19.17 per cent, respectively.

Complaints received on grounds relating to credit cards, failure to meet commitments, levy of charges without notice, loans and advances and non-adherence to the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) Codes increased this year compared to the previous year, the report said.

Meanwhile, the receipt of complaints at the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies gained momentum with 19,432 complaints received during 2019-20 compared to 3,991 in 2018-19, an increase of 386.89 per cent, the report said.

Non-adherence to FPC constituted 36.29 per cent of the complaints received, followed by non-observance of RBI directions (18.56 per cent), lack of transparency in contract/loan agreement (8.77 per cent) and levy of charges without notice (8.38 per cent).

The Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions received 2,481 complaints in 2019-20 against 470 in the five months of operation during 2018-19, the report said.

Non-adherence to RBI and System Provider instructions on payment transactions through Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), Bharat Quick Response (QR) Code with 43.89 per cent of complaints, was the major ground of complaints.

The RBI said that as announced in the Monetary Policy Statement on February 5, the three Ombudsman Schemes are being merged and integrated into a single scheme, which will be rolled out starting from June 2021. “The capabilities of the CMS will be enhanced for more efficient grievance redress,” it further said, adding that a framework for consumer education will be put in place to meet the needs arising from increased digitalisation in the banking space.